Chance Encounters
by Grendle1853
Summary: Random encounters between the citizens of Gotham and the Dark Knight
1. Chapter 1

As usual it is a dark, dreary, and spooky night in Gotham. Especially for nine year old Lucy Hartigan. She was at the movies, where her mom had dropped her off before work. When the movie was over her mom's boyfriend was supposed to pick her up and take her home. He didn't show up, and the theater closed, so now Lucy is trying to walk home.

She has walked the rout before, but never at night, because her mom told her it wasn't safe. Bad things happen in the city at night. She has walked two blocks, she just needs to walk four blocks more to reach home. Out of an alleyway across the street walks a man with slick hair, dressed in blue jeans and jean jacket. He steps in front of Lucy, blocking her way. "Where are you going little girl?" he asks.

"I'm just walking home. I'm sorry mister, but I'm not supposed to talk to strangers, so goodbye," she answers and tries to walk around him.

The man flips open a switchblade and Lucy slowly backs away in fear, "Don't worry little girl, we are about to get to know each other real well," he tells her. Lucy backs way from him until she hits an ally wall and can move no further. The man smiles and stops a few steps away from her. Then he pulls down the fly of his pants, "Be a good little girl, and I might even take you home when I'm done," he says. Lucy presses herself against the wall as the man approaches, she is too frightened to scream.

From the rooftops swoops down a shadowy figure, who snatches up the man and carries him screaming into the darkness above. Lucy can hear the man cry, apologize, and beg. Then she hears him scream in pain. Lucy can hear him scream for several minutes, coming from different rooftops, as if the man was being tossed around by an angry god. Suddenly the scream stops.

Lucy has heard storys about a thing in the night. This thing, this Batman, was said to come and get you if you do bad things. Now Lucy knows that the storys are true. The shadowy figure lowers itself to the street and approaches the girl. In the dark he looks huge, bigger than any real man, with long ears above his head, and wings that drape over his shoulders and down his back. Where eyes should be are white slits that look down at her. "Um...thank you Batman...sir?" she rambles.

The Batman kneels down low to look into her eyes, "Where do you live?" he asks.

His voice is deep and unlike any she has ever heard, "I live on Wayne street, on the fifth floor of the apartment building across from the dry-cleaners, in apartment number 423," she answers.

The Batman stands and reaches a hand down to her. The hand is as black as the rest of him, and three blade like spikes come out in a row down his forearm behind the wrists. Despite this, and the fact that she is still afraid, she takes his hand. He reaches down and picks her up, and hold her to his chest, as his wings/cape fall around her covering her in darkness. She feels him lift his arm, and she hears a weird sound, then she feels them being lifted high into the air.

She feels when his feet hit rooftop, and she squeezes her eyes shut as he runs and leaps through the night. After a small frightened eternity, she hears a window open and feels warm air. She opens her eyes as the Batman sets her down in her room in her and her mom's apartment. She looks at him as he hangs outside of her window. The light of the room shows a human mouth in the Batman's mask, almost to assure her that he is person after all. Lucy smiles at the Dark Knight and says, "Thank you mister Batman." The Batman gives her half a smirk, then drops from sight. Lucy looks out the window, but sees no sign of him anywhere.

Later that night her mom comes home and is relieved to see her there. She calls her now ex boyfriend some bad names and hugs Lucy close. Before the girl goes to bed, she turns on her tv. On the news Vicky Vale reports that a suspect for several child rapes in Bludhaven has been apprehended by the GCPD. They show his picture, and although he has been severely beaten, Lucy still recognizes him as the man from the ally. She turns off the tv and goes to bed, safe in the knowledge that the storys about what the bad things fear are true.


	2. Chapter 2

Dan is standing on the roof of his office building, looking over the edge and getting ready to throw himself over it. He works for the IRS, so nobody likes him. As soon as they find out what he does for a living people label him as some bastard helping the government take their money.

He found out today that his wife is seeing another man. She isn't having sex with him. She is just hanging out with him, going to dinner and to the movies, and talking a lot with him. Actually she is doing everything but sleeping with him, and Dan doesn't believe it will take long for things to go that way. He asked his wife why she is doing this and she answered, "I'm just not happy anymore Dan."

As far as Dan could understand it, that meant he didn't make her happy anymore._ Did I ever make her happy?_ He asks himself. _When was the last time I was happy?_ Scenes flash through his mind:

Getting a Ferrari red bike for Christmas, losing his virginity, getting his first job, buying his first car, meeting the woman who would be his wife, his wedding day. All good memories, but all seem far off and hazy, almost as if he watched them on TV sometime ago; like they belonged to someone else.

_So that's it then. No one likes me, can't make Her happy, can't be happy myself. What else is there in life? _

Dan takes a step onto the ledge and looks around. All the people seem so small bellow him, scurrying down the lighted streets, wary of the shadows in between. Dan does not feel like one of them. Not that he is above them (apart from the literal since). In fact, he didn't feel much of anything_._

_That's a big drop. I wonder if it will feel like flying...until I hit the ground at least._

Before Dan can take the plunge, he feels a presence behind him. He turns to see a large figure draped in black with telltale "ears" pointing up from its head, and white slits where eyes should be. Dan only vaguely believed in the Batman, but now he has no doubt that is what stands before him. Dan can't speak or even think properly with the imposing form glaring down at him.

Without warning, the Batman reaches out and shoves Dan, sending him over the edge of the roof. As he falls, Dan's heart is racing, sending fear through every part of his body. He screams so hard his lungs burn and the only thought racing through his mind is_ I'm going to Die!_

Something wraps around his legs, slowing his fall to a stop. Then, almost sickeningly, pulls him at great speed back to the roof. When the motion stops Dan looks up to see that he is suspended by a cord held in the Batman hand, who seems unaffected by holding up Dan's entire weight in one arm. The Batman glares down at him, and in an almost unnatural voice asks, "Do you want to die?" Dan is so filled with dread he can not answer.

In response, the Batman presses with his thumb, and suddenly Dan is plummeting back toward the street bellow. As the cement and asphalt speed toward his face, Dan takes a deep breath and screams out, "STOP!"

Once again the cord safely ends his fall and pulls him back skyward. When Dan again hangs close to the dark figure, it asks, "Tell me, do you want to die?"

With tears freely flowing he shakes his head and answers, "No." Gently the Batman lays him down on the roof and undoes the cord. When Dan looks up, the Batman is gone. Dan looks around for a minute, then laughs deeper and with more feeling then he has ever in his life.

Later that night Dan drives home and makes love to his wife. They do so with more energy and passion then they have in what feels like a lifetime. A week later Dan goes on vacation, and takes his wife on a second honeymoon. So far every day since that night has been a lot happier.


	3. Chapter 3

I own nothing please don't sue me.

All praise to my BETA Hepburn!

Everyone calls Ricky a low life, even his friends and family, and for good reason. He's a low level drug dealer who, for the right price, will sell to anyone from near dead street walkers to middle school kids. He's watched people destroy their lives giving him everything they own then everything that ain't nailed down for a taste of his stuff, has excepted everything from wedding rings to baby strollers for some smack, and has slept well afterward.

Recently Ricky has moved slightly up in the world, and now splits what he gets from his supplier with other dealers. Right now he stands in a rundown firetrap of an apartment talking with one of his associates. "What do you mean he picked up Fat T? Who the hell is _He_ Mack, Gordon?" Ricky asks.

"No man, no cop," Mack answers, then says in a whisper, "It was the Bat!"

Ricky laughs at the man, "Look, I can believe that somebody knifed his lard ass. I can believe the GCPD grabbed him when nobody was looking. I can even believe that Fat T took his recent earnings and decided to vacation in sunny Hawaii with a couple of the strung out chicks he frequents. Just don't give me crap about some Batman okay."

"The Bat ain't crap Ricky," Mack replies.

"I'll believe that when I see it with my own two eyes." Ricky says, leaning back against the wall.

About an inch away from his head, a black fist punches through the wall from the outside. Before he can react it grabs a hold of Ricky and rips him through the newly loosened brick wall. Now dangling several floors above the street, the drug dealer looks up to see that he is in the grip of a large black figure, with a billowing cape, two large "ears", and blank white eyes. Upon reaching this realization, Ricky begins to scream.

The Batman leaps off the side of the building, shoots out a line, and zips to a rooftop across the street. When he lands he lifts Ricky up and glares into his face and growls, "Now your going to tell me where I can find your supplier."

Though still afraid, Ricky regains a bit of his composure and a lot of his attitude, "Wow I have to say you caught me off guard, nice entrance by the way, but then again I didn't believe the stories about you," he says, "but, now I do. Something all those stories say is that you don't kill people, even people like me, so what exactly do I have to be afraid of?" he asks.

"Oh I'm not going to kill you Ricky," he answers, then in a voice that sends chills up the punk's spine he says, "I'm not that nice." Ricky turns several shades paler then Batman says, "Last chance."

"You're bluffing," he answers.

Gotham river isn't so much a body of water as it is a thick slick of slime, or at least that's what Ricky has always thought. He never learned how to swim, didn't do well on boats, and once had an unpleasant experience in the docks that left him with a deep dislike of the river. Later Ricky would try and figure out how the Batman could have known this. Right now he is just trying to breath.

At the moment the young criminal is being dragged at high speed down through Gotham river via a line attached to Batman's speed boat. Batman his self is standing on the back looking at Ricky and controlling the boat with a small remote. He looks over his shoulder and makes a small course correction, which causes his victim to clip a floating garbage bag. After a few more minutes he slows the boat to a stop and calls out, "I don't have the time torture you all night, so tell me what I need to know or I'll leave you here to try and swim you way home."

Ricky spits out something foul and says, "I get my stuff from Telly Stern! He works over at Triple Ace Shipping! Just him I swear! Please get me out of here!"

The Batman reels him in then tells him, "If I find out you have been less then truthful with me, next time will be in the sewer." before he knocks him out.

A few hours later Ricky wakes up in lockup. One of the fellow inmates looks over at him and asks, "What the hell happened to you?"

"The Batman!" Ricky answers.

The other guy laughs, "Yeah right."


End file.
